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Philadelphia Train Crash Engineer Turns Himself in

Seven hours before the statue of
limitations was set to expire in the Philadelphia train crash case against
Brandon Bostian, the engineer who was operating Amtrak 188 when it crashed, the
Pennsylvania Attorney General brought criminal charges against him. Six days
later, Bostian turned himself in to authorities to face those charges.

Charges
Made in Amtrak 188 Train Crash After Urging from Victim’s Families

With the two-year anniversary of
the crash of Amtrak 188 only hours away, it was beginning to look like Bostian
would not be charged in the case, especially after, early this week,
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams stated that there was no evidence
against Bostian showing criminal intent in the accident. Families ofsome of those who
died in the crash, however, were determined not to see Bostian avoid legal
consequences.

The family of Rachel Jacobs—a CEO
and mother to a young child before being killed in the crash—filed a private
criminal complaint in Philadelphia Municipal court, where attorneys
representing several of the victim's families pressed Philadelphia Municipal Court
President Judge Marsha Neifield to order the district attorney to bring charges
against Bostian for his actions on the day of the Amtrak 188 crash. Because
District Attorney Williams had already decided he would not charge Bostian, the
DA sent the case to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro instead.

Read AG Shapiro’s statement on the filing of a criminal complaint for the deadly Amtrak 188 Train crash below. pic.twitter.com/hh42I7wt6U

On Friday, May 12, 2017, hours
from the two-year anniversary of the Philadelphia train crash, Shapiro charged
Bostian with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count of causing or
risking a catastrophe, and many counts of reckless endangerment.

In a statement, Shapiro thanked
his staff for helping make the charges on such a tight timeline.

"I commend our outstanding
team in the Office of the Attorney General who worked diligently and
thoughtfully around the clock to enable us to be in this position to pursue
justice on behalf of the victims of this deadly crash," Shapiro
said.

Amtrak
Engineer Was Known for His Passion and Dedication to His Work

Six days later, on Thursday, May
18, 2017 at about 10:00 a.m., Bostian—silent and expressionless—turned himself
in to police at Central Detectives in Philadelphia. As Bostian was handcuffed,
his attorney said he had "no comment at this point." It’s not
surprising for Bostian, who in the two years since the Philadelphia train crash
has not spoken publicly of the events.

Before that fateful day in May of
2015, however, Bostian had spent his life loving trains and passionately
pursuing a career in the railroad industry. During his senior year of college
he worked part-time as a brakeman, and, after that, he landed a conductor job
with Amtrak. He moved to California for a time to work for Caltrain, but in
2012, he returned to work for Amtrak again, this time on Amtrak's busiest line,
the Northeast Corridor. It was the culmination of hard work and dedication to
his career.

Those who worked with Bostian
praised his work ethic. One colleague said Bostian's
job in the Northeast Corridor was his end goal. "My impression was
that he had become who he always set out to be—in charge of the head end of a
train on a major railroad. And having come that far, he wasn't going to be
distracted by anything."

It was distraction, however, that
would prove to be Bostian's downfall.

NTSB
Report Cites Engineer as Cause of 2015 Train Crash

After a year of investigation,
the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the
Philadelphia train crash was "the result of a loss of situation awareness
by the train's engineer after his attention was diverted to an emergency
involving another train."

Bostian, who the Amtrak 188
train crash investigation found had no drugs or alcohol in his system and
had turned his cellphone off well before the crash, had engaged in a six-minute
radio conversation regarding a SEPTA Regional Rail commuter train that was hit
by rocks that had been thrown. Officials say that Bostian, who they describe as
being "very cooperative" in the investigation, said he was concerned
for the engineer of the commuter train. The radio communication on the matter
ended only a minute before Amtrak 188 crashed.

Investigators believe that while
he was caught up in the conversation, Bostian lost track of where he was in his
route, and so he accelerated to a speed of 106 mph (believing he was in a 110
mph speed limit zone), when he had actually entered a 50 mph speed limit zone
and was rapidly approaching a curve. The speed with which the train took the
curve caused it to derail and led to eight fatalities and around 200 injuries.

Suffering a concussion in the
train crash, Bostian has never regained full memory of the accident and the
timeline or circumstances of events.

Train
Safety Technology Could Have Prevented Philadelphia Train Crash

While Bostian was ultimately to
blame for the crash, the NTSB and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
have said the Philadelphia train crash highlights a greater problem than
operator errors, namely the lack of train safety technology.

Since 1970, the NTSB has
pushed for positive train control (PTC), which enables a computer to
remotely control a train using GPS with radar and track sensors, and allows for
technological intervention when train operators are not in control.

In the May 15, 2016, press
release on the crash of Amtrak 188 and its cause, NTSB Chairman Christopher A.
Hart stressed how much of a difference positive train control could have made.

"It's widely understood that
every person, no matter how conscientious and skilled, is fallible, which is
why technology was developed to backstop human vulnerabilities," Hart
said. "Had positive train control been in place on that stretch of track,
this entirely
preventable tragedy would not have happened."

In the aftermath of the crash, Amtrak has installed PTC throughout many
sections of the Northeast Corridor, including the area where Amtrak 188
crashed.

After a train crash in
Chatsworth, California in 2008 that killed 25 people, Congress
passed legislation requiring PTC. Railroads were given until December of
2015 to comply, but, in response to pressure from the railroads, the deadline
was adjusted to 2018. In theory, the Philadelphia train crash could have been
avoided if the PTC had been installed on the original
timeline.

Speaking with
the New York Times in May of
2016, Sarah Feinberg, the head of the FRA, expressed concern over the new
deadline.

"While Congress has given
railroads at least three more years to fully implement P.T.C., the public
deserves it sooner," Feinberg
stated.

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